Lebanon, PA: SAMBA Builds Sweet, Sustainable Singletrack

The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew visits Swatara State Park in Pennsylvania

The legendary Keith Whitcomb of the Rattling Creek Singletrackers demonstrates appropriate central PA work gear: shorts and a red bandana. This man wields a mean tool, and is responsible for some sweet local trails.
The group poses near trail. Everyone sure is smiling a lot, considering we're about to spend several hours swinging tools and fighting privit.
The trail begins to take shape.
A short jaunt from the trails is another park, which holds the remnants of old boat locks. Local riders contemplate the gap jump. Just kidding!
Winding through the woods on the Swatara trails.

On April 14 - 17, Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders, Jill Van Winkle and Chris Bernhardt, joined the Susquehanna Area Mountain Bike Association to put in some more mileage at Swatara State Park, outside Harrisburg, PA.

SAMBA leaders Brian and Andrea got a jump on the public-involvement process several years ago when Swatara was formed, and their evenings spent in meetings with parks planners and other recreationists paid off with permission to build, from scratch, a new trail system in the park. Rarely are mountain bikers given the chance to work with a blank canvas, and SAMBA has not squandered their chance.

Paying strict attention to the principles of sustainable trail design, SAMBA has been diligently laying out and building fun singletrack in the park. In a region known for its rocky trails, Swatera stands out as being nearly rock-free. As a result, the trails are smooth and flowing, making them great for either beginners just getting into the mountain bike groove, or advanced riders looking to spin a bigger gear.

The weekend's work party focused on bench-cutting a new section of singletrack along a hillside. A hearty crew showed up to sling pulaskis, McLeods, and adze hoes. The finished product resulted in 800' of nicely-finished singletrack.

Two club rides sandwiched the work activities. A visit out to Weiser State Forest near Lykens, PA allowed the Crew to enjoy some of the trails that were underwater from Hurricane Ivan the last time they passed through. As fun as the trails were, the highlight was the post-ride picnic the club members had prepared. On Sunday, those trailworkers, with enough energy left after the morning's digging, saddled up and took a tour of all that Swatara has to offer. With fun trails and beautiful spring weather all weekend, it was hard not to have a great time.